ETHICS TRAINING FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS

Ethics training is a useful tool for strengthening ethics and preventing corruption in public administration if applied together with other tools as part of a comprehensive anti-corruption and pro-integrity policy. Ethics training alone cannot produce sustainable results, especially in countries with high levels of corruption.

Political support and "leadership from above"

Political support for ethics training should be demonstrated not only through declarations but also through the practical actions of the leadership, e.g. by setting an example of ethical behaviour and by allocating funds and staff for the implementation of the ethics training programmes. Lack of such "leadership from above" undermines motivation for participation in ethics training and thwarts their positive impact on the behaviour of civil servants.

Legal requirement to provide and receive ethics training

Ethics training should be a part of a broader and comprehensive public policy on anti-corruption/integrity and public administration reform, and should be reflected in programmatic documents. However, a requirement to provide ethics training established in policy and programmatic documents alone may not be sufficient to ensure its practical implementation. It is important to have a legislative or other official requirement to deliver and receive integrity training for public officials established in, for example, a Law on Civil Service, an Anti-Corruption Programme, a Code of Ethics and other appropriate regulations.

Leading agency and coordination of ethics training

It is important that there is at least one public agency responsible for the overall framework for ethics training, for central planning, coordination and evaluation of results. Civil service, anti-corruption or ethics agencies can play this role; clear formulation of responsibilities of these institutions should be complemented with proper coordination among them, as well as with other institutions that provide ethics training at central and local levels. In addition, ethics should be integrated in the everyday management of public institutions and managers of public institutions should be required to promote ethics in their institutions.

Targeting the training for specific groups of public officials

When there is a limited budget for training programmes, it is important to prioritise the target groups. Targeting also helps to make the training more focused on the practical needs of a specific group of public officials, thus increasing their motivation in participating. Several groups should be targeted for ethics training: all new public officials should be provided with ethics training; senior public officials in management positions and public officials in areas of risk should also be trained on ethics. Compulsory programmes for these target groups are advisable. It is also important to develop ethics training programmes for political/elected public officials. Finally, ethics/HR officers in sector ministries and local level governments should also be trained for their important role in the dissemination of the integrity policy in the organisation.

Making ethics training practical

Assessments of ethics risks and training needs should be carried out in order to adapt the training programmes to the needs of the target groups. Specialised ethics related surveys could be a useful tool for such needs assessment. Close cooperation between the agency that provides the training and the agency that employs the public officials at the stage of developing the training programme is also important in order to adapt the programme to the specific needs of a given institution. To make the training less formalistic and more practice oriented, and to use the limited time allocated for ethics training to its best, it is very important to apply modern training methods. This can include a combination of theoretical lectures and practical tailor-made case studies and workshops. It is also recommended to use evaluation methods to assess both the knowledge received by the participants of the training and to identify ways to further improve the training. Finally, countries could consider developing follow-up measures, such as individual ethics action plans for participants in the training programmes, and additional coaching in the workplace to support the implementation of such plans.

Training about rules, values and "grey" areas

It is important to combine the training on ethics rules established in the legislation, ethics codes and other regulations with training on ethical values in order to change attitudes and to strengthen participants’ understanding of why anti-corruption reforms are necessary and possible. It is also important to provide practical guidance on ethical behaviour in situations where official rules contradict traditions or do not provide clear answers on how to behave in concrete situations. It is especially important in countries with high levels of corruption where many grey areas have not yet been addressed by formal rules. While lectures appear appropriate for training on rules, interactive and tailor-made practical methods may be more useful for training on values and ethical conduct in risk situations.

How to evaluate the effectiveness of the training

Evaluation of the effectiveness of ethics training is a challenging task. Current evaluation methodologies focus mostly on outputs such as the number of public officials trained. Direct evidence that the training has led to improvement in ethical behaviour among the target group of public officials is usually not available; the overall impact of the ethics training can be assessed only in the long term.

Contents of an ethics training course

The aim of an ethics training programme is to raise the competence of officials to recognise ethical problems in practical life and to make ethically reasoned decisions. The focus should not be so much on requirements included in the regulations (although the laws provide an important framework concerning restraints and prohibitions in public service), but on the essence of public service values and officials’ competence to recognise and analyse ethically problematic situations. Those situations are often out of the scope of laws or are only partially regulated. Ethics training can be based on a compliance approach and a focus on rules (which is more legalistic), or on a values approach (which is more values-oriented or “philosophical”). The training can also cover so called "grey" areas, including areas not regulated by formal rules, such as possible conflicts between rules and traditions, unregulated benefits and integrity risks specific to public officials in specific sectors

Sample Ethics Module

1. Public service ethics and values;
2. Private vs. public roles of the civil servant;
3. Politics vs. public service ethics;
4. Discretion as a source of ethical dilemmas
5. Ethics and corruption, including role of laws, value declarations, codes of ethics, codes of conduct, and integrity-based vs. compliance-based approach  
6. Development of ethical competence, including model on ethical decision-making and discussion of the case studies
7. Values in public service organisations, including the development of a value-based organisational culture
8. Most frequent ethics-related cases in public service.